Religious and medical discourses at the core of the legitimization process of penal law. The management of homoerotic mores in Quebec (1892-1969)

This article describes the evolution of two dominant discourses (the medical and the religious) that interfered with the system of penal law in its conceptualization and management of homoerotic mores in Quebec from the creation of the first Canadian Criminal Code in 1892 until the adoption of the Omnibus Bill in 1969. The analysis of interactions between these discursive formations and the system of penal law shows that even if the viewpoints of law and religion as well as law and science on the homosexual phenomenon are sometimes in opposition, they are not always mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they often reinforce each other.